Alabama rising junior Wilson Furr has gone from the mountaintop to the valley and back again, all at a dizzying speed. In 2015, Furr won the Mississippi State Amateur Championship as a 16-year-old, making him the youngest player to win that title in the tournament’s 104-year history. After graduating from Jackson Academy in Mississippi as a top-10 national prospect, Furr battled a huge right miss for the first half of his freshman year before a Christmas-vacation visit to swing guru Jeff Smith in Las Vegas showed Furr the way out of the darkness. Six months later, he won the Mississippi state am again by 11 shots — the first of eight top-15 finishes over the next 12 months, and an achievement that earned him a berth in his first PGA Tour event at the Sanderson Farms Championship, where he shot 76-70. This past year, as a sophomore, Furr earned Ping All-Region honors and tallied the Crimson Tide’s lowest per-round scoring average. He begins his title defense of the Mississippi state am on June 20 at Hattiesburg Country Club.
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LYING FOUR: Is it weird returning to an event that you won when you were 16 years old?
WILSON FURR: Not necessarily. I guess when I was 16, it felt like a different tournament than it does now — I guess you’re right about that. But I feel like everybody in the field, especially the juniors and college players, has gotten a lot better over those years, too. As a 16-year-old, I didn’t know exactly what my chances were going into it, but now I feel like I’ve got a better understanding. So yeah, it’s a little different.
LYING FOUR: When you won the Mississippi state am at age 16, how did that feel? Did you expect to win, or was it a shock?
WILSON FURR: I had a chance to win the year before. The last round actually got cancelled the year before that, when I was 15. I was three back of the lead, and the last round got cancelled. I’d had a chance, so I knew I could do it. Obviously it’s always a shock when you pull it off, but I felt like I had a chance, for sure.
LYING FOUR: I’m trying to come up with a better word than “hype” and a less corny word than “excitement,” but when did people start to take notice of you during your junior career? Was it after the state am in 2015, or was it before that?
WILSON FURR: It was probably right around there. That was the summer before my junior year of high school, when I made a turn and started playing well.
LYING FOUR: Is that kind of a weird feeling at that age, when you’re playing with college players and adults, and suddenly you’re not just competing with them but you’re beating them?
WILSON FURR: It’s funny — my dad always wanted me to play against people who were better than me. So when I was 12, I played in the 15- to 16-year-old group. When I was 13, I played in the high school group. So I’ve always kind of “played up.” So that hasn’t been a weird thing, when I was younger. Then I always played with the older people at the country club, who were really good. So I guess playing with the older people wasn’t that weird. It kind of feels weird now, not feeling young. That’s kind of an odd feeling that I’m trying to work on, to be honest with you.
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LYING FOUR: The stuff that you worked through the first half of your freshman year is well documented. But it must have been frustrating when you’ve been playing this game all your life, and it’s always come naturally, and then all of a sudden that seems to go away.
WILSON FURR: Big time. Oh my goodness, yeah. More than you could know. It was a steady downhill progression, for sure. It actually started at the state am that year [in 2017] — it started going right, and I never found it for about eight months. It’s a pretty bad feeling: you feel like you know what you’re doing, and then the ball goes 100 yards off-line, every time. It was really tough. I’m still trying to fight some of those habits out of my swing, but I’ve done a lot better job of it recently.
LYING FOUR: When you went to Vegas to see Jeff Smith, was there an “a-ha” moment where the lightbulb came on, or has it been more of a gradual evolution from that point?
WILSON FURR: At first, there was definitely an “a-ha” moment. It was like, “Wow, you’re doing this so poorly in your swing” — something I never looked for — like, “it’s so poor, no wonder you’re hitting it so bad.” That’s honestly what I needed at that point. I was kind of fired up that he told me that, because I needed to know that something was way off, because it felt like it wasn’t that bad. So I’d say at first it was an “a-ha,” but then after that, once I started being able to play better and hit the ball straight, the more I’ve been able to hit the ball straight — the more I’ve been able to go back to see him, the more it’s been like, “OK, you need to work on this, this is gonna take a while.” After the initial “boom” of getting it back to normal, it’s been more of a gradual progression.
LYING FOUR: After that, you had some really good results during the second half of your freshman year. How did you feel about your game heading into the state am last year? Did you feel like you were back to the point where you could win again?
WILSON FURR: For sure. I’d been feeling good about my game. When I started hitting the ball straight in February of freshman year, it took until about the middle of March for me to trust it. That’s always more important than actually doing it, is trusting it. After that, I felt really good about my game — so going into it that year, I felt good. And it was at a really good golf course [the Preserve in Vancleave], so that was cool too. I love that place.
LYING FOUR: And how did it feel to swing that freely? I’m sure you wouldn’t describe it this way, but you cruised. It must’ve been really vindicating for you, after everything you’d been through.
WILSON FURR: For sure. But actually, I wasn’t feeling that way the entire week. The first day, I couldn’t hit a fairway with my 2-iron, which was weird because that’s usually my go-to club. And I found out it was cracked. So that’s why it was going way off-line. I didn’t figure that out until like the 15th hole. So it was kind of a stressful first day, and I kind of grinded that first day and got it in at, like, 1-over I think. [NOTE: Furr shot 68.] It wasn’t pretty at all. After that, I got a new 2-iron and started playing better. The score might’ve looked like it, but it wasn’t a breeze. It was hard. But it was fun.
LYING FOUR: You should give yourself more credit. To shoot 1-over with a broken golf club is pretty good.
WILSON FURR: Well I quit using it the second I found out it was broken. But yeah, it was weird.
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LYING FOUR: Whenever anybody has a junior career like you did, college is going to come with expectations. Did you ever feel pressure from those expectations?
WILSON FURR: I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. Especially when I was playing really bad, toward the beginning of my freshman year — you feel like you should be able to help the team. That’s the hardest part about college golf: if you’re not playing well, then it’s not just you that you’re affecting, it’s also the guys you live with and play with every day. So it’s kind of a compound problem when it’s not going well.
LYING FOUR: How did you handle that?
WILSON FURR: It was kind of interesting. I went out to see [Jeff Smith] in December, which was right at the beginning of Christmas break, and so pretty much that whole Christmas break I just put my head down. I was by myself, at home — I had my friends here, but I wasn’t with our team. So I just worked on it every day by myself. That was kind of important for me. It was good timing, at least. And when I came back to school, there was enough progress that I could keep it going. There wasn’t just hopelessness when I showed up. And after that, it felt like every day it became easier.
LYING FOUR: What about by the time you got the Sanderson Farms? In an environment like that, is there pressure built in, or is it almost like a victory lap?
WILSON FURR: I was nervous on the first tee, but after that, I kind of settled in. It didn’t feel that nervous, because — it matters, but it’s not like life or death. I played well, actually. I missed two two-footers — which is just random, and missed the cut by three. So I felt like I had a pretty good chance to make the cut, but I just didn’t play well enough. It was a really cool experience, just getting to play with those guys out there, seeing what they do well and how my game stacks up against them was really cool.
LYING FOUR: Were there any lessons you can draw from an experience like that?
WILSON FURR: I think the biggest thing is that you see just how professional they are about everything they do. A lot of their golf games won’t just awe you when you watch them play, but then they’ll shoot 3-under. I think it has more to do with the way they practice, the way they stretch before the rounds, the way they carry themselves. It was just very — it’s their job. They’re professionals. It’s not just a hobby, they’re not just out there having fun. They’re good at what they do. I think that was the biggest thing I drew from it, was just how serious they took it.
LYING FOUR: How do you feel about your game now, compared to where you were heading into the state am this time last year?
WILSON FURR: Probably about the same, to be honest with you. I’m sure my game has evolved a little from this time last year. I’ve been struggling with my putting for about the last two months, and I’ve made putter switch this week that I feel really good about. That’s a big confidence boost. Pretty much the biggest thing that I’ve got to do every week to play well is that I’ve got to hit my wedges well. It’s the biggest weakness in my golf game, for sure — and this week, there’s going to be a lot of wedges. If I can hit my wedges adequately, then I feel like I’ve got a really good chance — which I feel like I can do without too much stress. But I feel good about the game as a whole and the direction it’s going in.